Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 8 - Section III
III. Abel Tassin D’Allonne, Esq.
The surname of this learned civilian was Tassin. Why he was styled Le Sieur D’Allonne is a query for my genealogical readers. His father, Tassin, married a Dutch lady with the double surname of Silver-Crona. His uncle Tassin resided at Paris, and in 1680 gave Jean Rou a letter of introduction to his nephew at the Hague. D’Allonne at this date was secretary to the Princess of Orange, and when her Royal Highness became our Queen Mary, he was retained in this office and removed to the English Court. Narcissus Luttrell writes, “April the 3d, 1689, Abel Tassin d’Allonne, Esq., is made principal secretary and master of requests to the queen.” He was recognised as a Protestant refugee, though no particulars have reached us regarding his departure from France, his object no doubt being to secure his life and livelihood in conjunction with liberty of conscience. He seems to have been an only child, and to have lived unmarried; and his uncle Tassin also had no heir. But his aunt Elizabeth was the wife of Nicholas Damin, and left three children, Jacob, Elizabeth, and Anne. Jacob Damin and his children settled in Geneva; Elizabeth was, in 1721, the widow and relict of Charles Brunier, and a refugee at the Hague, having a son, Charles Brunier, who lived in Paris; Anne married Pierre Joly, and was resident in Paris in 1721, but her daughter, Margaret Joly, was a refugee at the Hague.
On the death of Queen Mary, King William III. continued him in office, and probably, as a testimony to his fidelity to the deceased Queen, he gave him a reversion of part of the estates of the Duchy of Lancaster held for life by the then Queen Dowager, Catherine of Braganza. In the Patent Rolls there is a grant dated 18th May 1697, unto Abel Tassin D’Allonne, Esq., “for, and in consideration of, the good and acceptable services unto his said Majesty performed, and also in consideration of the rent and covenants hereinafter contained,” of the Castle of Pickering, the Manor or Lordship of Pickering and the Park of Blandesby, the Bailiewick of Soke and Liberty of Pickering, the Manor and Lordship of Scalby, also “those lands or tenements there concealed and lately found out by force of a commission, and then or lately in the tenure or occupation of John Carpenter, gentleman, now deceased,” all which premises are called the Honour of Pickering, in the county of York. The rent of this estate and its perquisites amounted to £234, 10s. 2d., but the clear income was only £187, 13s. 103/4d. This was granted to D’Allonne for a yearly rent to his Majesty of £10, for ninety-nine years after the death of the Queen Dowager, (Catherine of Braganza, who survived till 21st December 1705). It is probable that he sold this grant.
In December 1697 D’Allonne went to Paris to make preparations for the reception of the Earl of Jersey, as British Ambassador, and was there for some months as a chargé d’affaires, along with Mr. Secretary Prior. In November 1698, on the suggestion of the former French Ambassador, the Earl of Portland, he received a definite appointment in the English court, as the King’s Secretary for Dutch correspondence.
The last notice of D’Allonne in Macpherson’s State Papers, is dated after the death of his Royal Master; he wrote (2d September 1702) as one who felt his connection with England broken up, congratulating Robethon on his settlement, and thanking him for having employed him to make a communication to the Earl of Portland and Secretary Heinsius. His letter is dated from the Hague, where he is expecting to receive employment as an envoy to some foreign court; he wishes it may be at Hanover, considering how much Holland is connected with that country, and is interested in the Protestant Succession, and for himself how agreeable it would be to be near his friend Robethon. He does not mention, either there or in his will, the Castle of Pickering.
D’Allonne, on retiring to Holland, aspired to employment as a Foreign Ambassador. But Rapin de Thoyras’ biographer informs us that he received the office of Secretary of State for War, and that Rapin was much indebted to him for access to valuable books bearing on English History. [I do not believe the scandal, alluded to by that biographer, that D’Allonne was an illegitimate half-brother of William III.] He kept up a connection with England, by continuing to receive his annuity of £200 from the Comité Laicque,[1] until his death, which happened on the 14th October 1723.
I present my readers with a copy of his English will (omitting a few sentences only):—
In the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.
In the name of God, Amen. I, Abel Tassin D’Allonne, of the Hague, in Holland, being sensible of the frailty of human life, and uncertain when it shall please God to call me out of this world, and being at present, thanks be to God, of sound and perfect mind, memory and understanding, do make this my last Will and Testament as to the estate which I have in England in the form and manner following, intending to dispose of what estate and effects I have in Holland by another Will made in the Dutch language, and according to the style and manner used in Holland.
My Will and intention therefore is, that my whole estate, real and personal, which I now have, or may have in England at the time of my decease, be divided into five equal shares or portions. As to the first share or portion, I give and bequeath one-half or moiety of the same unto Elizabeth Damin, the widow and relict of Charles Brunier, daughter of Elizabeth Tassin, my father’s sister by her husband Nicholas Damin, for the term of her natural life, she, the said Elizabeth Damin, being now living at the Hague, in Holland, as a refugee. The other moiety or half of the said first share I give and bequeath unto Margaret Joly, the daughter of Pierre Joly by Anne Damin, another daughter of my father’s sister Elizabeth Tassin, for the term of her natural life, which said Margaret Joly is now living a refugee at the Hague, in Holland. And in case of the death either of the said Elizabeth Damin, or of the said Margaret Joly, then my Will and intention is, that the whole of the said first share or portion shall go to the longest liver of them two, and after the decease of them both to my aforesaid aunt’s son, Jacob Damin, and his children living at Geneva. Unless that my cousin, Elizabeth Damin, alias the Widow Brunier, should outlive her niece, the said Margaret Joly, and by means of such survivorship be entitled to the said whole first share or portion, in which case it is my meaning and intention that she, the said Elizabeth Damin, being well satisfied with her son Charles Brunier, now living at Paris, his dutiful behaviour towards her, shall be hereby empowered, in case she thinks fit so to do, to dispose, by testament, codicil, or other appointment under her hand or seal, of one half, or moiety of the said whole first share or portion to her said son Charles Brunier.
The second share or portion of my said English estate I devise and bequeath unto Sarah Silver Crona, daughter of my mother’s brother John Philip Silver Crona. and to the children of the said Sarah by John de Fagett Van Cralingue and Heyneoort, living at the Hague in Holland.
As to the third share or portion of my said English estate I devise and bequeath one half or moiety thereof unto Johanna Susanna Willocquauw, daughter of my mother’s sister Catherina Bommert Silver Crona, and to the children of the said Johanna Susanna, by Michael Baars. And the other half or moiety of the said third share I give and bequeath unto Johanna Willocquauw, the youngest daughter of my said mother’s sister Catherina Bommert Silver Crona by her husband Peter Willocquauw, and to the children of the said Johanna Willocquauw by her husband John Blair of Balthayock.
The fourth share, or portion of my said English estate, I give and bequeath unto the three daughters of my mother’s sister, Johanna Maria Bommert Silver Crona, to wit, Catharina, Maria, and Anthonette. by Elias Hamilton de Guickery, the said fourth share to be divided among the said three daughters in three equal portions, and the portion of each daughter to go to their descendants.
Concerning the fifth and last share or portion of my said English estate, it is my will and intention, that it be divided into two equal parts. One part thereof to be delivered to the Reverend Doctor Thomas Bray and his associates, that a capital fund or stock may be made thereof together with that little he has received from me before, and that the yearly income or proceed thereof be bestowed and employed in the erecting a school or schools for the thorough instructing in the Christian religion the young children of negro slaves, and such of their parents as show themselves inclinable and desirous to be so instructed, in some one or other part of the English plantations in the West Indies, according to the scheme to be made of it for the fittest execution of it, and the greater success in it. And I do further hereby leave and bequeath to the said Reverend Doctor Thomas Bray and his associates, to the same purposes before expressed, the arrears of pension from his present Majesty (whom God long preserve) that shall be due or owing to me at the time of my death. And as touching the other moiety or half of this fifth share, designing to dispose of it to the same or some suchlike uses by my Dutch will or testament, it is my further will and intention that the same be put into the hands of the executors of my Dutch will, to be by them disposed of in the manner and to the uses I have directed in my said Dutch will.
It is my further will and intention that in case any difference or dispute should arise between any of my relations who are legatees in this my Will in relation to any clause or bequest of this my English Will, that the same should be determined in an amicable manner by a reference to some friends or impartial honest men chosen for that purpose, that they may decide the matter in dispute by plurality of voices. And if any of the contending parties do refuse to make such reference or to submit to the award of arbitrators so chosen, and do peremptorily insist to have the matter decided at law, then I do in such case declare that I do hereby, to all intents and purposes, disinherit him, her, or them. But if it should fall out in such wise that the matter in dispute, being referred to arbitrators named on both sides, their votes should be equal so as that the matter in dispute should thereby rest undetermined, then in such case it is my meaning and Will that an umpire be chosen by the executors of both my Wills to make a final decision of the matter in dispute. And if either of the contending parties do refuse to submit to the award given by the said umpire or appeal from the same, then the said party so refusing shall be hereby debarred from claiming any benefit or advantage whatsoever either under this my English Will or under my Dutch Will: and the legacy which would have been otherwise due to the said parties shall in such case go to and be equally divided among my other relations, who are the legatees in this Will of the four shares of my English estate.
Finally, being sensible as I ought to be, and truly am, of the many most friendly and undeserved helps and good advices in my concerns, which I have from time to time received from my most worthy friend Henry Temple, Esquire, who has already been at no small trouble, and is yet to undergo more before the full execution of this my last will, I hope His Honour will not find fault with my having left him (only as a bare token of my gratitude) a legacy of two hundred pounds sterling, which I hereby bequeath unto him to be bestowed upon a silver toilet to a daughter of his that shall be married first, or otherwise as he shall think fit. And I do hereby constitute and appoint my said most honoured friend Henry Temple, Esquire of East Sheen, in the county of Surrey in England, and Mr. Harrald Johannis Pels and Robert Pierre Chilton, Esquire, Seigneur de la Davière, a Dutchman and a Frenchman now living at the Hague in Holland, joint executors of this my last Will and Testament, hereby revoking all former Wills by me made in relation to my estate I have in England. In witness whereof, &c, &c, at the Hague in Holland, 1st July 1721.
Witnesses. — S. Johnson, A. Gilly, B. Lindeman.
Proved by Henry, Viscount Palmerston, one of the executors named in the Will. London, 12th December 1723.
- ↑ Burn’s MSS.